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Yarra Track
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Yarra Track
The Yarra Track is the former name of the gold fields road from Healesville to the Woods Point and Jordan Goldfields, in Victoria, Australia. The Yarra Track originally began at New Chum, but subsequent route deviations and land surveys led to the establishment of new townships, including Healesville. The earlier settlements and original routes were eventually abandoned.
Traces of gold were found in New Chum Creek in the 1850s. Prospectors camped briefly on the grassy flats near the creeks junction with the Watts River, before they hacked their way through dense undergrowth into the mountains.
New Chum grew to serve these prospectors and gold miners. In 1859 William Hall had set up as a blacksmith at New Chum. By 1860 stores were brought from Melbourne by bullock cart to New Chum, where the carts were unloaded and transferred to pack horses.
Often called a hamlet, New Chum consisted of "two stores, blacksmith’s shop and three packers huts" "built of the most part of slabs, and roofed with shingles and bark." At that time it was noted that "some little bustle is created by the pack horses that are gathered around the place, with their drivers, either on the point of starting or having just returned.'"
In April 1864, New Chum was described as "a miserable collection of slab and bark huts situated at the foot of a steep hill, on the banks of the creek bearing the same name."
In March 1862 J. Sullivan, deputised by the miners at the Jordon Diggings, approached the Victorian Government about the need for a road or track to the Jordan gold fields. The Victorian Government sent James Murphy, civil engineer and Government mining surveyor, with a party of men, to survey and mark a track. Murphy and Sullivan at first travelled together; however, after a difference of opinion on the best route to explore, they separated and marked different tracks.
Murphy explored a track from New Chum to near what would become the Marysville Woods Point Road. He surveyed a route along the Watts River to its upper reaches; from there he ascended the spurs and ridges of Mt Dismal and explored a route running eastwards, south of Mt Observation, to beyond Donavan's Creek. He did not complete the survey of that explored section before being called back to Melbourne. His plan of that route is dated 23 July 1862.
Mr. Reick and Mr. Stockman, who were in Murphy’s surveying party, "believing that the direct road had been struck", resolved to follow it up. They followed Murphy’s route from New Chum to the end of his line of exploration. Reick describes their efforts:
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Yarra Track
The Yarra Track is the former name of the gold fields road from Healesville to the Woods Point and Jordan Goldfields, in Victoria, Australia. The Yarra Track originally began at New Chum, but subsequent route deviations and land surveys led to the establishment of new townships, including Healesville. The earlier settlements and original routes were eventually abandoned.
Traces of gold were found in New Chum Creek in the 1850s. Prospectors camped briefly on the grassy flats near the creeks junction with the Watts River, before they hacked their way through dense undergrowth into the mountains.
New Chum grew to serve these prospectors and gold miners. In 1859 William Hall had set up as a blacksmith at New Chum. By 1860 stores were brought from Melbourne by bullock cart to New Chum, where the carts were unloaded and transferred to pack horses.
Often called a hamlet, New Chum consisted of "two stores, blacksmith’s shop and three packers huts" "built of the most part of slabs, and roofed with shingles and bark." At that time it was noted that "some little bustle is created by the pack horses that are gathered around the place, with their drivers, either on the point of starting or having just returned.'"
In April 1864, New Chum was described as "a miserable collection of slab and bark huts situated at the foot of a steep hill, on the banks of the creek bearing the same name."
In March 1862 J. Sullivan, deputised by the miners at the Jordon Diggings, approached the Victorian Government about the need for a road or track to the Jordan gold fields. The Victorian Government sent James Murphy, civil engineer and Government mining surveyor, with a party of men, to survey and mark a track. Murphy and Sullivan at first travelled together; however, after a difference of opinion on the best route to explore, they separated and marked different tracks.
Murphy explored a track from New Chum to near what would become the Marysville Woods Point Road. He surveyed a route along the Watts River to its upper reaches; from there he ascended the spurs and ridges of Mt Dismal and explored a route running eastwards, south of Mt Observation, to beyond Donavan's Creek. He did not complete the survey of that explored section before being called back to Melbourne. His plan of that route is dated 23 July 1862.
Mr. Reick and Mr. Stockman, who were in Murphy’s surveying party, "believing that the direct road had been struck", resolved to follow it up. They followed Murphy’s route from New Chum to the end of his line of exploration. Reick describes their efforts:
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